Let’s get eating! Every weekend, Chiang Rai closes one of its main streets to traffic and converts it into a pop-up market. Food and drink, handicrafts, clothes, trinkets, art, toys—there’s a lot of it about. The walking street, as they call it here, is not to be confused with the night market, which is about […]
Scratchpad
Thai Dairies (day 1)
To eVoA or not to eVoA Thailand’s evisa-on-arrival gets a thumbs up from me. The VoA procedure itself is a bit of a fish market at Bangkok (or maybe I’ve just arrived at the wrong times). There is an express counter for the privilege of skipping the queues, but you pay extra for that. The […]
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Thank you for the music, Bernie Wolfe
I am writing this because Bernie Wolfe is dead. Or at least the powers-that-be at Holby City want us to believe that she might be. So, this is not about promiscuous bisexuals, or about dead lesbians (well, it is, but not in that way), or the fact that Bernie is dying to further a white […]
The annual update, version 43
Another trip around the sun and I live to tell the tale. A bit late with this update, mainly because there’s been a lot going on—such as, the #BDB campaign for which I’ve been doing much of the web admin work; a new YA book I started on; another regular assignment to fit into my […]
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Falling from grace
I’ve been involved in many fandoms over the years. Most of them have taken a similar trajectory—the euphoria of discovery; a frenzy of inhaling anything and everything related to the fandom; finding out about the people behind (or part of) it; and either a tapering off of interest levels, or being let down by your […]
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Lewis
My love of all things Jemma Redgrave led me to the pilot episode of Lewis, a spin-off of the crime series Inspector Morse, based on the books of Colin Dexter. Now, you might wonder what connection all of this has with Jemma Redgrave. Simple: she had a role in the story and I’m currently on […]
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Monday to Sunday: What I’m watching these days
Every once in a blue moon, a reader stumbles upon my blog. I was reminded of that fact yesterday, which in turn reminded me how neglected Writer’s Log has been lately. What can I say? I’ve been too busy reading, writing and playing games (I’m so close to finishing Thief, Wolfenstein: The New Order and […]
Older and wiser…again
It’s stock-taking-of-the-year time and the only thing I can think of is, 2017 was the year I discovered Berena! Well, in the larger scheme of things, the year that just went by was a horrible one. Right-wing bigots continued to be in power, the digital enslavement of Indian citizens went on, the economy remained effed, […]
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Discovering Frances Hardinge
Most of my August was spent in the brilliant mind of the British children’s and YA author, Frances Hardinge. I’ve been ploughing through her books and marvelling at the sheer brilliance of her imagination. I believe, like the protagonist of the latest book of hers I read, A Face Like Glass, Hardinge too is a […]
Why I want you to watch Holby City
**Note: Here be spoilers.** #1 Because representation matters The older I get the less patience I have for stories about men, for men. It doesn’t help that this covers most of TV. This started me on a quest to seek out series featuring women or series that have stories about women (not the same thing). […]